The Buffalo News: Opinion: City’s revival is gaining momentum as many key components are taking shape

The Buffalo News

This is a rebuilding year in Buffalo, and we’re not talking sports teams. The Bills are rebuilding and, Lord knows, the Sabres desperately need it, but Buffalo, the city, is literally in a construction year that will start paying off in 2016 and continue through at least 2020. Years from now, you will be able to bore your grandchildren with stories about how you were around when …

That rebuilding is what this year’s Prospectus supplement in The Buffalo News celebrates. It’s out on Sunday and, among other things, looks at the projects under way today that will lift the region in years to come. Those developments include:

• Construction of the Solar City plant along a curve in the Buffalo River. In the most promising of the developments under way, work crews are drilling more than 5,500 pilings to support the foundation of the aptly named RiverBend project. Structural steel is to start going up next month and plans are to enclose the giant building by September. The plant should start producing solar panels next year and be up to full capacity by 2017, putting Buffalo at the forefront of a powerful new industry. Read More